Russian economy to face workforce shortage in coming years - Putin

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - The Russian economy will have extensive workforce needs within the next few years, President Vladimir Putin said.

"I stress that, given the demographic challenges, Russia's economy will face large workforce needs and even a workforce shortage in the coming years. This is absolutely certain. We should understand that. We will live with that in the next few years," Putin said at a congress of Russia's Federation of Independent Trade Unions.

In these conditions, "it is critical to raise labor productivity, modernize industry, agriculture, the services sector and many other sectors of the economy and social sphere with the help of digital technologies and automation of production and management processes," he said.

"This, in turn, should directly lead to an improvement of specialists' work conditions and an increase in their incomes," Putin said.